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Whistle Stopper - My Name Is Bill W.
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $28.99
Your Save: $ ( % )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Starring: James Woods, JoBeth Williams, James Garner, Gary Sinise, George Coe
Directed By: Daniel Petrie
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786303101415
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 6303101410
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Release Date: 1997-09-02
Running Time: 100
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1989-04-30
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Inspirational and Entertaining
Comment: Although not for everybody, this film gives us insight into the struggles of Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob the founders of AA. I think the acting was excellent. The characters were portrayed wonderfully by James Woods and James Garner. I learned a lot from this film and would recommend it to anybody who is involved in a 12 step program or works with recovery.
Customer Rating:
Summary: My Name is Bill W
Comment: This is a very moving story. If you or anyone you know has a problem with addictiion. It helps you to realy understand what AA is all about.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Awsome !!!!
Comment: As a recovering person of 21 years, the movie helped me get in touch with so many feelings. Mostly gratitude for what I have but also the feelings of hopelessness, shame, and despair. So very close to Bill's Story in the Big Book. I use it to show new people in recovery how it all started.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: AA
Comment: Some AA members consider this movie a valuable asset. I found it shallow. It was a pathetic Hollywood attempt to review the lives of those who began the search for an alternative to hospitalization and death for alcoholics. It was a nice try, but it didn't work, and the way it ended was like diving off a board into a dry pool.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not Only a Great Film, But a Story of an Important Spiritual Movement
Comment: James Woods won the 1989 best-actor Emmy for his performance in this film about the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous. The film received six other nominations, as well. So, beyond its value as a fascinating look at the origins of one of the most important spiritual movements of the 20th Century -- it's simply good movie making!
But there's a lot more to learn in exploring the roots of Alcoholics Anonymous. Once thought of as isolated from the realm of religion -- scholars of religious movements now regard the founding of AA with its reliance on a "Higher Power" as a major milestone in the evolution of American spiritual movements. This is especially true in newer books like Phyllis Tickle's "Great Emergence, The: How Christianity Is Changing and Why (emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith)" Tickle argues that "AA opened the floodgates to spirituality by removing the confines of organized religion."
Think about its influence for a moment. Here is a massive national network formed around essentially spiritual principles that cut across religious boundaries -- and even manages to include non-religious people who define "Higher Power" in other ways. The movement was founded and grew with great success -- not as a branch of some traditional religious group -- but as a new way of bringing people together and organizing their reflections.
The movie's a great discussion-starter for groups.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Here's another example of TV giving James Woods the chance to stretch out from the intense-psycho roles he seems restricted to in too many of his movies. In My Name Is Bill W. he plays Bill Wilson, the overreaching businessman from the Roaring '20s who went on to found Alcoholics Anonymous. Woods gets plenty of chances to stretch out here in Bill's headlong slide to the bottom, through the terrors of the Wall Street crash (which amplifies a two-fisted drinking problem) and into the loss of everything he holds dear. Yet Woods also is convincing as the man who understands just how insidious his disease is and learns to try to take everything one day at a time. He receives strong support from James Garner as the alcoholic physician who teams with Bill to make AA a viable proposition. --Marshall Fine
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